Hawthorn Receives A$10M Boost To Help Move HQ

A "key benefactor" is donating A$10M ($7.8M) to Australian Football League side Hawthorn to "help the club fund the shift" to its new Dingley HQ, according to Jake Niall of THE AGE. In "one of the most generous gifts in AFL history," former Hawthorn VP and Flight Centre co-Founder Geoff Harris committed a A$10M donation to the Dingley project for what the businessman called "seeding capital" for the new project. The A$10M is being paid over five years. Harris’ family has already donated A$6M ($4.7M), with payments of A$2M made in '15, '16 and '17, respectively. The Hawks have to raise tens of millions for Dingley -- club sources estimated the eventual cost will be A$80M-A$100M ($62.8M-$78.5M) -- in what "shapes as arguably the competition’s most ambitious fund-raising program," as the club plans to make the move from Waverley Park to the "much more spacious" Dingley training and administrative base (THE AGE, 2/13).